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Inside The Bills

They weren’t sure he’d be able to step right into the starting lineup. They didn’t even plan for him to be a middle linebacker, but a lot of the initial thoughts of the defensive staff for changed once Kiko Alonso stepped onto the practice field.

Appearing on the Sirius XM NFL ‘No Huddle’ show with Steve Tasker, defensive coordinator Mike Pettine explained how Kiko’s early flashes of ability convinced them to hand him a giant role.

“I can’t tell the lie that he is exactly what we expected,” said Pettine. “I thought he was going to be more of a rookie that we had to work in some, but he’s exceeded our expectations from day one. We saw him as more of a weak side linebacker, but just kind of given our roster situation he was forced to play the mike linebacker and call all the signals. What helped him was everybody was new to the system too. The fact that everybody was new we decided to try it and it was a no brainer from the first day.”